News

Sharks News

Winter Classic Update - 12/29/2011

by
Alex Aragon
/ San Jose Sharks

With four days in between games against Vancouver, the San Jose Sharks had the day off on Thursday to rest following their six-game homestand. No rest for the Canucks however as they head to Southern California to face both the Ducks (Dec. 29) and Kings (Dec. 31) before the calendar turns over to 2012. The Sharks and Canucks renew their rivalry on Monday, Jan. 2, 2012 in Vancouver, ushering in the NBC Sports Network (formerly VERUS) with the debut broadcast on the rebranded sports channel.

So with the day free to talk about anything hockey related, we can take a moment to talk about that other game on Monday, Jan. 2, the 2012 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic. Here's an update on the progress of the rink build at Citzens Bank Park in Philadelphia, courtesy of Dan Rosen from NHL.com. He reports on the ice markings being painted despite some unpredictable weather delays in his Winter Classic Blog.

It wasn't until 2:30 p.m. that the crew started to lift the tarps off the ice and bring the hoses back out. A late cloud cover and the changing angle of the sun made it possible to get water back on the ice surface at that point.

"All we'll get in today is 10 hours of build time and then we'll have to come back tomorrow morning and put in the other six," Craig said. "I need it set by 11 o'clock in the morning because our media game is at noon."

It's a marvel of modern engineering really that they're even able to build ice in the locations and under the conditions that they do. And as you can tell from the time lapse at the top of the screen, it's an "all hands on deck" project.